THIS WEEKEND Jack
Black rocked his way to the top of the charts with his new comedy School
of Rock which ruled the North American box office during the
first weekend of October. Close behind was Denzel Washington's cop thriller
Out of Time with a respectable second-place
bow. Despite the two solid new entries, the overall top ten still lagged
behind the similar frames from last year and two years ago.

Hit-starved Paramount finally had something to celebrate this weekend
with the impressive launch of School of Rock
which hit number one with $19.6M from 2,614 theaters, according to final
studio figures. The Richard Linklater comedy averaged a potent $7,507 per
site and even earned glowing reviews from some of the nation's toughest
critics. School stars rising comedian
Black as a rocker who teaches a class of ten-year-old prep school children
how to be rock musicians.

The PG-13 film appealed to both adults and kids as 52% of the crowd
was under 25, according to studio research. Males and females were split
evenly which also pointed to the broad appeal of the pic. Budgeted in the
low $30M range, School of Rock should
generate a domestic gross at least double the cost of the film.

Denzel Washington was robbed of his usual first-place position and settled
for the runner-up spot with the cop drama Out
of Time which debuted with $16.2M. MGM's PG-13 release about
a police chief under investigation for murder averaged a good $5,262 in
each of 3,076 locations. The opening fell into the range of Washington's
The Bone Collector and John
Q and did not break the $20M mark like the fall hits Training
Day and Remember the Titans
did.

Last weekend's heavyweight champ The Rundown
fell 48% in its second weekend and collected $9.7M for third place. After
ten days, Universal's action-comedy starring The Rock and Seann William
Scott has grossed $32.6M. Co-financed by Sony, the $80M film looks to reach
about $60M domestically.

Buena Vista widened the run of its hit Diane Lane drama Under
the Tuscan Sun from 1,226 to 1,697 and slipped just 21% to fourth
place with $7.7M. The PG-13 pic has taken in $20.7M in ten days and seems
headed for the vicinity of $50M.

The family drama Secondhand Lions
slipped 37% to $5.2M and pushed its total to $30.6M. Sony's vampire thriller
Underworld dropped another 46% in its
third weekend to $5.1M for a 17-day sum of $44.8M.

Expanding from 488 to 864 theaters, the Bill Murray pic Lost
in Translation climbed three spots to seventh place with $4.2M.
The Focus Features release averaged a solid $4,819 in its fourth weekend
and reached $14M.

The Fighting Temptations sank 47%
to $3.4M giving the Paramount gospel pic $24.6M. Sony's Once
Upon A Time in Mexico followed in ninth with $2.6M, off 48%,
for a total tally of $53.1M. Buena Vista's Cold
Creek Manor rounded out the top ten with $2.5M giving the domestic
thriller just $18.3M to date.

Two new releases enjoyed sparkling debuts in their limited bows in New
York and Los Angeles. Lions Gate unleashed the Val Kilmer porn murder pic
Wonderland in five cinemas and grossed
$91,798 for a $18,360 average. Miramax countered with the dwarf drama The
Station Agent which took in $57,785 from three venues for an
equally impressive $19,262 average.

Two films fell out of the top ten over the weekend. Nicolas Cage's Matchstick
Men dropped 48% to $2.3M in its fourth heist. The Warner Bros.
comedy has taken in $34.2M thus far and should finish with around $40M.
The Miramax flop Duplex collapsed 52%
to $2.2M in only its second weekend bringing its ten-day cume to $7.9M.
Look for a $11-13M final on this comedy followed by a swift trip to video
shelves.

The top ten films grossed $76.1M which was down 22% from last year when
Red Dragon opened at number one with
$36.5M; and down 6% from 2001 when Training Day
debuted in the top spot with $22.6M.

Compared to projections, School of Rock
opened a few notches above my $17M forecast while Out
of Time was on target with my $16M prediction.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Data source: Exhibitor
Relations, EDI. Opinions expressed
in this column are those solely of the author.

Last Updated : October
6, 2003 at 8:30PM EDT

Gitesh Pandya can be seen each Friday on "The
Biz" airing at 12:30pm and 9:30pm ET on CNNfn.